The Haunting
The Haunting is a 1999 remake of the 1963 horror film of the same name. Both films are based on the novel The Hauting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, published in 1959. The Haunting was directed by Jan de Bont and stars Liam Neeson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Owen Wilson and Lili Taylor. It was released in the United States on July 23, 1999. *'Directed by:' Jan de Bont *'Produced by: '''Donna Roth, Colin Wilson, Susan Arnold *'Written by: David Self, Michael Tolkin *'Story by: '''Shirley Jackson *'Starring: Liam Neeson, Lili Taylor, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Owen Wilson *'Cinematography: '''Karl Walter Lindenlaub *'Edited by: Michael Kahn *'''Country: U.S.A., U.K. *'Language:' English *'Running time:' 114 minutes *'Budget:' $80 million *'Box Office:' $177 million *'Release date:' July 23, 1999 *'Distributed by:' DreamWorks Pictures Plot Eleanor “Nell” Vance (Lili Taylor) has cared her invalid mother alone for 11 years. After her mother dies, her sister Jane (Virgina Madsen) and Jane's boyfriend Lou (Tom Irwin) evict her from their mother's house in bad manners. Before leaving her house, Nell receives a phone call about an insomnia study, directed by Dr. David Marrow (Liam Neeson), and she applies for it. Dr. Marrow wants to investigate whether sleep problems and reactions to fear are related, but this is unkown to the participants. So she choses for his study a secluded manor in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, named Hill House. The patients who will be experiencing the treatment arrive at the mansion. At first Nell arrives, and a strange caretaker (Marian Seldes) shows her her room. Then another participant arrives, Theodora, a cheerful and outgoing (but also somehow egocentric) artist who inmediatly befriends Nell. Nell is also attracted by her, and even more when Theo says to her that she's bisexual. The two inspect and investigate the house, and they are amazed by the creppiness of the manor, before the last participant arrives: Luke Sanderson (Owen Wilson). theo3.jpg|Theo and Nell inspect the manor Then Dr. Marrow and his two research assistants arrive at the manor too. At night they all have dinner at the main dinning room. There the participants explain their feeling about their slepping dissorders. Theo says that she actually likes to have some insomnia since when she is asleep at night is when she gets her best ideas. Luke says he can't stand to have insomnia and that he gets really nervous. Nell says that she has insomnia because her mother was ill since Nell was a kid and that her mother was always complaining at night, so that always kept her away. Even now she suffers insomnia. Wanting to expose his subjects to increasing amounts of terror, Dr. Marrow’s first relates after dinner the story of Hill House. The house was built by Hugh Crain —a 19th-century textile tycoon. Crain built the house for his wife, hoping to populate it with a large family of children; however, all of Crain’s children died during birth. Crain’s wife Renee killed herself before the house was finished and Crain became a recluse. After the story, Marrow's assistant’s face is slashed by a snapped clavichord wire. The freak accident causes Marrow’s research assistants to leave the manor in search for a doctor. Then they go to sleep. Trying to sleep, Theo and Nell begin to experience strange phenomena within the house, such as a mysterious force trying to break into their rooms to harm them. theo4.jpg|Unkown forces try to enter into Theo and Nell's bedrooms at night Both of them tell this to Dr. Marrow and to Luke that night. But after they are more calmed, they all return to their rooms. That night Nell sees apparitions in her room, but she doesn't tell anything to the others the next morning. That morning Nell continues to hear extrange noises but the others don't believe her. Hugh Crain's wood portrait morphs into a skeletal face and is vandalized with the words "Welcome Home Eleanor" written in blood. Theo and Luke establish their innocence. The next night, Nell sees blood footprints on the floor of her room and a hears a voice calling her. So she follows the footprints unto the library of the manor. There she found a secret room of Mr. Crain. Mr. Crain has old notebooks there and Nell discovers that Crain took children from his cotton mills and murdered them, then burned the bodies in the fireplace, trapping their spirits and forcing them to remain with him, providing him with an 'eternal family'. Nell tries to show Crane's notebook to Theo but, when she shows her the notebook, the pages are empty. So Theo doesn't believe Nell. But Nell becomes determined to prove that the house is haunted by the souls of people victimized by Crain's cruelty. So the next morning she continues to investigate. She finds a photobook of the Cranes and she learns that Crain had a second wife named Carolyn, from whom she is descended, that's the reason she's the only one who sees the apparitions and the noises. Nell continues to experience tha aparrtions of Crane's spirit and the children murdered, so she tells all the story to the others but Dr. Marrow is skeptical of Eleanor's claims, and he finally confess to his subjects that he wanted to see their reaction to fear telling them the creppy story of the house. Both Theo and Luke confronts Dr. Marrow for this, because they think that's why Nell is so shocked and mad now. The next day Dr. Marrow realizes he made a horrible mistake by bringing them to Hill House when a statue tries to drown him in a pool of water in a greenhouse. After Nell suffering a serious attack by Crane's spirit at night and being rescued by the others, they now all believe her and they all try to escape from the house. Trying to convince the obviously mentally-unbalanced Eleanor to leave the house with them, Theo offers to let Nell move in with her, but Nell reveals her relation to Carolyn (she's her great grandmother) and claims she must help the children "pass on". Hugh Crain's spirit seals up the house, trapping them all inside. A frustrated Luke defaces a portrait of Hugh Crain. Crain's enraged spirit drags Luke to the fireplace where he isdecapitated. theo5.jpg|Kule is decapitated by Crain's spirit leaving Dr. Marrow and Theo ashtonished Nell is able to lead Crain's spirit towards an iron door. Avenging spirits pull Crain into the door, dragging him down to Hell. Nell is pulled with him, inflicting fatal trauma on her body, but the spirits gently release her on the ground. Her soul rises up to Heaven, accompanied by the ghosts of Crain's victims. After Nell's death, Theo and Dr. Marrow wait by the gate outside until the Dudleys come in the morning. The Dudleys approach as the sun rises. Mr. Dudley asks Dr. Marrow if he found what he wanted to know, but the traumatized psychiatrist does not give an answer, and neither does Theo. When the gate opens, the two silently walk out and down the road, leaving Hill House behind them Cast '- Liam Neeson' - Doctor Marrow '- Lili Taylor '- Eleanor "Nell" Vance '- Catherine Zeta-Jones' - Theodora "Theo" '- Owen Wilson' - Luke Sanderson '- Marian Seldes' - Mrs. Dudley '- Bruce Dern' - Mr. Dudley '- Virgina Madsen' - Jane Vance '- Tom Irwin' - Lou Music Thehauntingost.jpg Filming Harlaxton Manor, in England, was used as the exterior of Hill House. The billiard room scene was filmed in the Great Hall of the manor, while many of the interior sets were built inside the dome-shaped hangar that once housed The Spruce Goose, near the permanently docked RMS Queen Mary steamship, in Long Beach, California. The kitchen scenes were filmed at Belvoir Castle. Critical reception The Haunting was panned upon its release, with most critics citing its weak screenplay, its overuse of horror clichés, and its overdone CGI effects. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a "Rotten" rating of 17%, with the critical consensus stating "Sophisticated visual effects fail to offset awkward performances and an uneven script." As a result of the negative reviews, it was nominated for five Razzie Awards. Roger Ebert was one of few critics to give the film a positive review, praising the production design in particular. The film was not a financial success, earning $91.2 million domestically and $85.9 million outside North America. With only half of all box office receipts going back to the studio (the rest is given to theater owners), the film made about $88.5 million. This covered its $80 million budget, allowing the studio to barely break even on the budget, but did not cover its $10 million domestic TV advertising campaign or other costs (such as international advertising, non-TV advertising, percentage payments to actors or crew, or prints). Daily Variety noted that, as of 1999, The Haunting had the "dubious distinction of becoming the film with the biggest opening ever to gross less than $100 million domestically."